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Displaced Kenyans return home
05/05/2008 18:31 - (SA)
Nairobi - Thousands of Kenyans returned home on Monday under a government programme to resettle families displaced by the violence that followed elections at the end of last year.
A group of several hundred left camps in several Rift Valley towns to return to the countryside under police and army escort. Others whose homes were destroyed remained behind.
"The government is committed to the resettlement of all internally displaced Kenyans and the right of any Kenyan to settle and own property, own land, work and visit any part of this country regardless of where one was born or one's ethnic background," government spokesperson Alfred Mutua said in a statement.
The effectiveness of the first resettlement programme, which was dubbed "Operation Return Home" and targets an initial 8 000 people, will be assessed by the end of the week.
"The government expects the momentum of the exercise to increase as days go by," Mutua added.
Although police vowed to boost security, many remained reluctant to return home owing to simmering ethnic tensions.
The violence broke out following December 27 elections which the then opposition candidate Raila Odinga claimed were rigged by incumbent president Mwai Kibaki.
The crisis left at least 1 500 people dead and displaced around 300 000.
Some have since returned to their homes but others have continued to face attacks and intimidation, even after the February 28 political deal which saw Odinga join a coalition cabinet and become Kibaki's prime minister.
"We are there on the ground to ensure that everybody who wants to return home is protected," police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe told AFP.
In neighbouring Uganda, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) started transferring some 1 800 Kenyan refugees from a border transit centre into Kiryandongo settlement in Masindi district, some 600 kilometres from the frontier.
"The refugees being relocated to Kiryandongo are reluctant to return to Kenya for now and have signed up for the relocation to Kiryandongo - a long established settlement," UNHCR spokesperson Roberta Russo said in a statement.
At Kiryandongo, home to 7 000 other refugees, each family will be allocated a plot of land of some 5 000 square metres for agricultural and residential purposes.
"Everybody is very excited about going to Kiryandongo. We are looking forward to getting established there, where our children can attend schools and we can start rebuilding our lives," said Peter Karanja, a leader among the Kenyan refugees.
Russo said 200 others who voluntarily agreed to return to Kenya will be repatriated on Friday.
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